Being an Amazon seller, you always have a highly competitive playfield. Sustaining a robust brand identity plays an important part in preserving demand amongst the customers. One area, which needs your care is the Minimum Advertised Price or MAP. Sellers that violate different Amazon MAP compliance policies may spoil your brand image as well as affects the ROI in the future. Let us go through what MAP means as well as how to counter with bad effects of the ill-effects of Amazon MAP compliance policies.
What is MAP?
Manufacturing brands utilize several means of protecting the brand reputation and one factor is a MAP or Minimum Advertised Price. With online marketing, it’s easy to advertise your products for any particular value. And here, MAP compliance policies have a role to play. These policies stop you from pricing the products under any particular determined values.
Manufacturing brands utilize several means of protecting the brand reputation and one factor is a MAP or Minimum Advertised Price. With online marketing, it’s easy to advertise your products for any particular value. And here, MAP compliance policies have a role to play. These policies stop you from pricing the products under any particular determined values.
While in the sales use cases, you could sell a product at lower prices and yet you just cannot value that below MAP. The example is given in the figure above. After acquiring all bulk-buy discounts, a product’s valid price is $26.38 and it is lower than its MAP. However, at the same time, its advertised price or VSP follows the MAP policies.
How Important the Amazon MAP Compliance Is?
To get competitive benefits in an online marketplace, the retailers utilize promotions as well as other discriminating means of lowering product pricing. Though, manufacturers get upset as product pricing speaks loads regarding the brand value. So, manufacturers think that MAP implementation is important to protect the brand values and positions.
MAP policies assist brands in preventing underpricing. What’s more, it has assisted in leveling a marketplace through promoting good competition between the sellers of different factions.
Who Do MAP Violations?
It is very important to realize that the network of Amazon sellers is a dark area. You would get different types of sellers like authorized sellers, unauthorized sellers, and counterfeit sellers to name some.
It is very important to realize that the network of Amazon sellers is a dark area. You would get different types of sellers like authorized sellers, unauthorized sellers, and counterfeit sellers to name some.
With the reality-checks, all types of sellers, treat in unfair methods like MAP violations. According to Harvard Business Review, there are 50% instances of MAP violations done by illegal sellers. Even the official sellers violate the policies of MAP compliance with a 20% ratio.
A lot of times, smaller retailers do MAP violations for avoiding getting eaten by bigger retailers. However, the biggest threat in this region is unauthorized sellers as they utilize false businesses of selling on Amazon. So, it’s hard to manage things because they are extremely sophisticated.
Why It’s Important to Concentrate on Amazon MAP Compliance?
Different MAP compliance policies are mainly a thing between the retailers and manufacturers. And that’s the reason why even the important names in the e-commerce industry like Amazon are cautious about MAP enforcements. Organizing so many manufacturers and retailers is an enormous job. Besides, there is a growing fear that these measures can reduce Amazon’s ROI.
This effect is harmful to the sellers because it results in indirect lobbying through more conspicuous retailers as well as MAP violators. Therefore, it directly upsets the product listings on Amazon. Besides, a blemish on the brand’s reputation may affect the ROI. In numerous instances, retrieval becomes tough. So, making investments in MAP enforcement is very much advisable.
Challenges That Amazon Sellers Face Due To Amazon MAP Compliance
Amazon is a great platform packed with all types of retailers and that’s why Amazon’s policy compliance is not easy so as the MAP compliance monitoring. Because of lacking Amazon’s MAP compliance policies, the responsibility comes on the sellers’ shoulders.
With active management, it’s easy to nurture customer satisfaction as well as reach sales goals.
1. Threat of Third-Party Sellers
Being an Amazon seller, it’s easy to sell in three different ways, as a 3P or a third-party seller, as a 1P or having close contact with the Amazon retailer, as well as an IP-DTC or openly as the manufacturer.
The main nuisance amongst these three is of 3P or third-party sellers. Around 50% of Amazon’s sales come from these 3P sellers. In reality, one can get the maximum number of unlicensed sellers in this group.
Several manufacturers try and limit the products from getting Amazon listings. However, unauthorized sellers could avoid these conditions very easily. In case, such sellers deliver improper goods, it hurts the reputation of the manufacturers.
2. Find Unauthorized Sellers
Unauthorized sellers group Amazon as the fake dealings. They work in a highly refined manner as well as move MAP enforcement effortlessly. The most interesting part is recognizing them. By the time, you could notice unusual activities, they might have done major damage.
3. Requirement of Dynamic Monitoring
The Amazon seller’s market is huge and keeps shifting every second with the addition and removal of new products. Manual techniques of stopping track of the MAP compliance policies as well as imposing them are difficult. One needs dynamic monitoring to deal with this problem. A capable software, which does it as well as reports to a customer can do sensations.
Effects of Unfair Systems like MAP Violations
These days, Amazon sellers and manufacturers have become well-aware of the MAP enforcement techniques as there are so many things at stake. So, whenever MAP violations get reported, severe effects follow.
1. MAP Enforcement Policies of Amazon
Amazon is not having any MAP compliance policies. Also, they do reply to the sellers’ complaints about repetitive and severe allegations. Accordingly, you can get stripped of the seller’s rights. What’s more, your account could be deleted also.
2. Legal Actions Taken By the Manufacturers
There are many implications in case, unauthorized sellers are discovered. If this data reaches the manufacturers, you might become subject to legal action. Different terms of these legal moves might be highly severe sometimes. So, they are certainly not worth the risk taken!
How to Do Amazon MAP Compliance?
There are not any direct methods to do MAP enforcement. However, one thing, which works wonders is the active participation you take as a manufacturer or a seller. Some ways of making changes are given below:
1. Use of A MAP Compliance Monitoring Software
Nowadays, companies are using data analytics for enforcing algorithms, which work great in Amazon’s MAP compliance monitoring. Any manual efforts will weaken due to the massive nature of this task.
Data analytics-related software helps in big time with those cases. This can do different complex analyses about the same items from Amazon as well as other platforms. Even they can compare extra information like pricing as well as review monitoring.
Data analytics-related software helps in big time with those cases. This can do different complex analyses about the same items from Amazon as well as other platforms. Even they can compare extra information like pricing as well as review monitoring.
2. Design Penalties for Controlling Violators
Being a manufacturer, it’s easy to lead the changes by floating information about the MAP policies. Spreading the use as well as benefits of MAP compliance would make the retail network reactive. Such a dependable system assists you in flourishing as a brand.
You need an encouraging Amazon MAP compliance policy to protect your brand image and design penalties for addressing the violators, which floats a real example. However, don’t get too hard because it has its consequences. Using warnings as well as providing mild penalties are the ways to do it.
3. Adoption of a Healthy Violation Reporting Policy
MAP violators are benefitting meaningfully by swallowing as well as feeding on profits of the other sellers. Only sellers can take any action against these unfair practices. When you know about MAP violators, you must report them instantly to the manufacturers. This step removes illegitimate competition as well as also assists you in establishing a stronger network with a manufacturer.
This procedure takes time, however, it can give you great benefits in a long time.
How Can X-Byte Enterprise Crawling Help?
X-Byte Enterprise Crawling is the one-stop solution for data-associated solutions. In cases like MAP violation, our data scraping solutions could help you in keeping track of these developments. Our process monitors as well as informs our customers on doubtful seller activities.
You can report about doubtful seller activities to eliminate unfair competition as it will help you cultivate as the Amazon seller.
Try X-Byte Enterprise Crawling!
Hire us for Amazon MAP compliance monitoring services to lead the changes in the MAP enforcement. Help us understand all your problems. All our data professionals are well-versed0 to offer reliable solutions for data-related problems in different domains. We promise to assist you in all ways possible.